The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” by Brokerages

Shares of The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) have been given an average rating of “Hold” by the four brokerages that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and one has given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $93.75.

TTC has been the subject of a number of research reports. Raymond James dropped their price objective on Toro from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Robert W. Baird cut their price target on shares of Toro from $102.00 to $92.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 6th. DA Davidson lowered their price objective on shares of Toro from $103.00 to $88.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, September 9th. StockNews.com raised shares of Toro from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Finally, Northland Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $100.00 target price on shares of Toro in a report on Friday, September 6th.

Toro Trading Up 1.7 %

Shares of NYSE:TTC traded up $1.37 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $82.46. 610,560 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 859,337. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $84.18 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $88.02. Toro has a fifty-two week low of $77.15 and a fifty-two week high of $100.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 1.94 and a quick ratio of 0.85. The stock has a market cap of $8.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.64 and a beta of 0.70.

Toro (NYSE:TTC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $0.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95. The business had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.09 billion. Toro had a net margin of 8.89% and a return on equity of 25.94%. The business’s revenue was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.71 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Toro will post 4.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Toro Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 13th. Investors of record on Monday, December 23rd will be paid a dividend of $0.38 per share. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.84%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 23rd. This is an increase from Toro’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. Toro’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 37.91%.

Toro announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback plan on Tuesday, December 10th that permits the company to repurchase 4,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Toro

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in TTC. Speece Thorson Capital Group Inc. grew its holdings in Toro by 24.5% during the 3rd quarter. Speece Thorson Capital Group Inc. now owns 144,438 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,527,000 after buying an additional 28,453 shares during the last quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. grew its holdings in Toro by 6,995.4% in the third quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 74,005 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,418,000 after purchasing an additional 72,962 shares during the period. PEAK6 Investments LLC acquired a new position in Toro during the third quarter worth approximately $1,248,000. Raymond James & Associates raised its stake in Toro by 5.7% during the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 278,700 shares of the company’s stock worth $24,172,000 after purchasing an additional 14,950 shares during the period. Finally, Eagle Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Toro during the 3rd quarter valued at $1,261,000. 87.95% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Toro Company Profile

The Toro Company designs, manufactures, markets, and sells professional turf maintenance equipment and services. It operates through two segments: Professional and Residential. The Professional segment offers turf and landscape equipment products, including sports fields and grounds mowing and maintenance equipment, golf course mowing and maintenance equipment, landscape contractor mowing equipment, landscape creation and renovation equipment, and other maintenance equipment; rental, specialty, and underground construction equipment, such as horizontal directional drills, walk and ride trenchers, stand-on skid steers, vacuum excavators, stump grinders, turf renovation products, asset locators, pipe rehabilitation solutions, materials handling equipment, and other after-market tools; and snow and ice management equipment, such as snowplows, as well as stand-on snow and ice removal equipment, such as snowplow, snow brush, and snow thrower attachments, salt and sand spreaders, and related parts and accessories for light and medium duty trucks, utility task vehicles, skid steers, and front-end loaders.